Dogs like marijuana more than cats.

I meant to write about this topic yesterday, but unfortunately life seemed to get in the way of my blogging pursuits again and there just wasn’t enough time. I have to confess, much to the outrage of animal lovers that read this blog, that I have blown marijuana smoke at my pets before. I’m not one of those people that force my pets to inhale my marijuana smoke. But if they come around when I am smoking marijuana, I kind of assume that they want in on the session. My cat will usually run away before the smoke hits her, but sometimes she just sits in the marijuana smoke and looks quite content.

All of my marijuana consuming friends and family ‘share’ their marijuana smoke with their pets. Some of them are a little forceful with it, which I don’t agree with. However, I don’t personally see anything wrong with second hand marijuana smoke if my pets come around for it, and it’s not in excess. Feel free to disagree with me in the comments section, because like always, I’d rather be proven wrong and facilitate discussion than to be right and never hear anything from anyone (that’s what blogging is about, isn’t it?).

There have been quite a few articles written lately about this topic. The first one that I saw was written by Dale Rodebaugh, for the Durango Herald. Here are some excerpts from the article, coming straight from the veterinarians:

Some veterinarians in Durango have seen a spike in the number of dogs poisoned by marijuana since the proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries made the drug more accessible.

“We used to see maybe one case a year,” said Stacee Santi, a veterinarian at Riverview Animal Hospital. “Now we’re seeing a couple a month.”

Jennifer Schoedler, a veterinarian at Alpine Animal Hospital, has seen incidents of dogs getting into marijuana since she came to Durango in 1998.

“Dogs love the stuff,” Schoedler said. “I’ve seen them eat the buds, plants, joints and marijuana in food.”

Eric Barchas, a veterinarian in San Francisco, says on his website that he treats “stoned dogs” on a regular basis.

“Serious, long-term health consequences and fatality from marijuana intoxication are essentially unheard of,” Barchas writes on his site. “However, pets that are exposed to marijuana may display anxiety and are prone to ‘bad trips.’ They may lack the coordination to consume food and water.”

Another article that I found was on the Huffington Post. My favorite excerpt from this article is “According to a 2002 peer-reviewed study on the subject, Dogs account for approximately 96% of all exposures to the drug, while cats–apparently more likely to just say no–comprise 3%, and other creatures round out the remaining 1%.” I suppose I could have just sited the study, but I’m a fan of the Huff, so I wanted to give them credit for bringing this to my attention!

I would like to point out to animal advocates (who are probably calling for my death at this point!) that “According to a study by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’s Animal Poison Control Center, only two deaths out of 250 pet pot cases have been reported — a cat and a horse, both of whom had other outstanding medical issues” (SF Weekly). I couldn’t imaging ‘sharing’ marijuana smoke with a horse…or perhaps it was just fed to the horse? True story – I once smoked marijuana with a high school friend that owned a spider monkey, and ‘shared’ my marijuana smoke with the monkey. He absolutely loved it! If you’re out there Andrew, that is still the craziest marijuana session I have ever had…

What I’d like to know is if the benefits are the same for dogs as people. I have a beautiful 3 year old Rottweiler who is in chronic pain from some bone malformation and he doesn’t get around very well and he crys a lot. This makes me sad because he’s still a young dog. He’s on meloxicam and tramadol from his vet. He loves weed. When I’m trimming he will eat little buds I give him. Snaps em up! So I’m wondering if this would help for pain management. I’m currently toying with the idea of putting my 8 son with autism on non/psych Cbds. I think weed is a wonderful cure all. Only thing is I don’t know how to extract the Cbds and am not sure if animals tolerate marijuana the same way. Any thoughts?

CJM Enterprizes

It works great if you give them a low dose tincture every day!

T_R_0_N

I would hate to stir up a stink with the aspca but if it’s good for our joint pains i bet it is for theirs too!! But I would think a little laced butter in their food or something edible would be in order — hell I’m no expert just my .02.

Koij

Not edibles. Too intense, get the dose wrong and that’s one fucked up pet. With passive smoke they can always wander off if they’re getting a bit too much.

Fern”hood Girl

Marijuana toxicity in dogs is not funny, cool nor should it be taken lightly. It’s irresponsible to leave a bag of weed layin’ around when you have kid’s or pets. It happened to me, the vet wanted $850 to keep him – a 25lb puppy – on IV overnight! That’s insane! I opted for the $300 version, make him throw up, which doesn’t always work (and didn’t in my case) as weed is an anti nausea drug. Then administer charcoal to absorb toxins. I had no idea when I rushed him to vet what he’d actually gotten into. All I knew was he could no longer walk, and had pee running out of him uncontrollably, scary!! So it cost me the weed and $330. Simply avoid giving weed to you dog, on purpose or accidentally! And blowing smoke in an animal’s passage way intentionally is ABUSE, straight up animal cruelty. An act reserved for moron’s at best.

joe

I named my cat Cheech…….he’s an orange tabby when I got him at 8 weeks old first day I got him I was smirking a bowl and my cat walked right into the massave cloud of smoke and stayed there and waited for The next smoke cloud but cheech would only smoke when I was smoking and that is why his name is cheech!!!

Willy Bormann

Haha. My orange Tabby’s name is chong

moostafa

I have a Pomeranian. And I’m a medical patient. Every time I go into my room to trim she devours the clippings. I can’t keep her away and when I try to she gets pissed at me lol. I also had another pom who passed away do to medical issues and he loved to eat them as well. He would Getty mad of I didn’t share it was crazy one day I didn’t share with him and he figured out how to open my desk drawer and snatched my sac and ate my buds lol I was mad but he was cool enough to leave me enough for a joint lol. I never force pets to do any thing but my poms will bug me of I don’t share. They literally climb on my chest and inhale the smoke when I blow out. I also had chinchillas Anna omg they loved to nibble on nugs. Is a plant in comes from the ground grows in any place toy want. Its been around longer than us I’m sure. I’m sure animals been eating it in the wild for millions of years.

Boski Kabzinski

my dog knows when i have some, she will immediately walk up to me and smell the pocket i have it in and follow me till i start breaking it down. While im picking out the stems she begs and whines when i dont feed them to her. i believe my dog thinks she really is just one of the group cause she’s always been treated as such so its funny to introduce my stoner dog to friends that havent met her yet. The best example of it was when my ex and i had a session and left my dog outside, afterwards she came in sniffed the air and knocked over the bong then proceeded to lick up the water. Jealousy? perhaps

Katie Gummery

i was under the impression that second hand smoke from a spliff or such alike it didnt then contain anything that could get any one high so i asume its the same for a dog or cat? xx

Cman240sx

Second hand still contains the same things that got you high

Wizsteve Wiz

one of the best treatments for tapeworms in cats are fresh leaves not dried .while it doesn’t get them high it will remove those nasty parasites.

Dee

My little Chihuahua, loves to get the steams from me to chew on & my cat will go out of her way to get to me when I smoke.

ladybutterfly

Got an interesting question. Could giving my dog MJ, help her with her leg cramps? She gets them quite often & nothing seems to help.

CJM Enterprizes

I give all of my pets a low dose of tincture every day. One of the dogs has seizures and while taking his meds, he is seizure free!

kimanne

My animals LOVE IT!!!….I don’t force it….my cat comes and sits next to us and waits….our dog would rather eat it….both are healthy, well-fed and loved!!!

ShadeysLadyDrea

We had an outdoor rabbit that we brought indoors to treat becuz it had maggots. The maggots were causing the rabbit lots of pain and seizures and to be very uncomfortable. One day, he was looking at me with a sad “help me, it hurts” look on his face, so i blew a few hits in his direction. Shortly after doing so, he was able to stretch out and rest, and did not have hardly any seizures. When awake, he seemed much more calm. After a few days of trying to cure him and smoking with him, he was almost healed, so we put him back outside for a few days, until we noticed the maggots were back. So he came back in and we resumed curing and smoking, but the maggots had taken over, so i blew him a last hit while he seized in my hands. A minute later, he relaxed and let the lord take him. But to think on it now, he always ran between our feet when we were smoking outside….(when he was in good health). RIP Bear Rabbit

PS: Its not animal abuse to blow smoke toward your pet unless they are unable to move. If they don’t want it, they’ll walk away from it.

Jack Marston

Sorry about your little friend…. it sounds like he had preexisting medical conditions if he had maggots attacking him… I hope he is at peace, hopefully the MJ did infact lessen his pain like in us humans. Again, sorry he is gone.

CJM Enterprizes

Low dose cannabis tincture works great on animals. Does not get them high. Cat with leukemia not coughing as much and has more energy. Dog with seizures, seizure free while taking daily tincture. It’s amazing!

Khaunji

I have three cats, two are house raised and leave the room if they so much as see you pick up a pipe, or even show them a bud. I have one feral cat, and she shows up whenever she smells it, or suspects my friends of having it. Interestingly enough, she’s also the most lethal, and active of the three, and clearly enjoys world music. You see, humans have quite a bit in common with dogs and cats, it’s why we bond well with them, and also probably one of the reasons we domesticated them.

Rose

Just because they may enjoy it doesn’t mean it’s ok. It’s not like they have the sense to understand what’s they are actually doing. A child might enjoy marijuana and may not die from it but that doesn’t make it any less fucked up.

Rose

Btw I’m speaking specifically to blowing smoke at or around them- not to tinctures etc.

Renee Musicus

Does anyone realize why Pot is called “Weed”? Because it is a weed and grows like a weed. It wasn’t made illegal until Dupont developed synthetic fibers. The use of hemp was their number one competition. Up until this point all ropes, rigging and sails, paper, and a million other products were made from hemp fibers. Even George Washington grew hemp, and declared that all good US farmers should do the same. So any way, by lobbying hard to make cannabis – and therefore hemp – illegal, Dupont made billions by taking over the market in synthetic fibers. And of course, propaganda helped to scare folks about pot. Ever watch “Reefer Madness” while you were high? You’ll laugh your ass off!

Elizabeth

I have 2 rabbits that absolutely love pot! As soon as they hear the grinder or catch a whiff of it they are front & center!

Phil

Nicee !:d

Kimimela Azul

I don’t know how to do shot guns. Ihave 4 dogs, I have one should smoke due to age but she doesn’t. I have one that smokes, problem is she takes Way more than I do to get high. Now that I am single i feel bad cause she’s not getting hers. Any ideas? And no I don’t want to shot gun her cause I’m afraid to burn my mouth or tongue. Pain and I don’t mix.